Judy Gregerson was born at the very end of Long Island on a very warm and sunny summer day. Everyone was happy she made it because the cord was wrapped around her neck and there were a few scary moments before she popped out.

The rest of her life went a little better. She grew up in a town that shut down at 5 p.m. and got out as soon as she found a college that would accept her. That was SUNY Oswego and she attended school with famous people like Bruce Coville, Al Roker, and Jerry Seinfeld. Ok, only Bruce was there at the time and she didn’t know him. But it makes for good copy.

After college, Judy worked as a newpaper copy editor, a marketing assistant at Viking/Penguin, in the advertising department of The New York Times, and then had various jobs at an ad agency, doing public relations, and the likes. Finally, she worked herself into an ulcer and moved to the west coast.

Her first book was published in 1980 by Doubleday (a memoir) and she was named in Who’s Who in America that year. It really didn’t help her any. In fact, no one seems to remember.

Judy now lives in the Seattle area with her two daughters, husband, dog, cat, frog, gerbil, and two mice. She is currently seen doing yard work and getting the mold off her windows.

Your Name: Judy Gregerson

1. Where you are from and where are you now?

I grew up on the eastern end of Long Island but I live in the Pacific Northwest now.

2. How did you get started writing?

I played around with writing when I was a kid and then again in my early twenties, but I got serious about it when I was about 25 and started working on my first book.

3. What do you do when you are not writing?

I do a lot of research. I’ve also gone back to college to finish a new degree. In the summer, I travel a little. I read, watch TV, and hang out with my husband and my kids.

4. What would readers like to know about you?

Well, I take very seriously what I write and I only write about the things that are important to me. I try to write them in a way that everyone will see a part of him or herself in the character because I believe that emotions are universal and we all experience the same emotions, but to different degrees.

5. What inspired your first book?

I made a friend in NYC who had published a book and he convinced me that I could, too. I think that I needed someone to believe in me back then and when he did, I decided that I could do it. So, I sat down and started doing audio tapes which I later transcribed into my first draft.

6. How many books have you written?

I have two published books and probably 8 unpublished.

7. What are the titles of your books and what genres are they?

Save Me! A Young Woman’s Journey Through Schizophrenia to Health, Christian, and Bad Girls Club, Young Adult/crossover.

8. How do you decide on that topic or genre?

I consider myself a coming of age writer because all my books are about that time in a person’s life. I feel most comfortable there, with a main character who’s about 17-21. The topic is usually something that has puzzled me or something I want to explore in greater detail and make more accessible to people. With Bad Girls Club, I wrote about parentification. Hardly anyone knows what it is, but they recognize it when they see it and they’ve probably seen it from time to time in their life. The idea that children can reverse roles with their parents and become the parent fascinates me. In fact, any kind of role reversal fascinates me, but I thought that readers would find it interesting, too. Also, I like to look at things from a new angle and bring something to the table that a reader wouldn’t have seen before. I think I’ve been successful in doing that.

9. How do you manage to keep yourself focused and on track?

Ha! It can be hard. I have so much going on in my life right now that I’m probably horribly out of focus. But I’m also good at being disciplined when I have to, so if I have something to do, I can sit down and get it done. When I’m writing, I fully thrust myself into it and I can work 10-12 hours a day for 3-4 months. Then I pull away and digest what I’ve written before I go back to it.

10. Do you write to make money or for the love of writing?

Oh, it’s probably a bit of both. I enjoy the writing immensely. But who wouldn’t want to make money at it? In fact, I think that most people, if they were honest, would admit that they want to make money at it, even if only a little. I think an artist should be paid a fair wage. I have no problem with that.

11. What are some traditional methods of marketing you have used?

I’ve used direct mail and email. I also belong to an authors’ marketing cooperative and did the AuthorBuzz program with M.J. Rose.

12. What are some unique methods of marketing you have used?

I worked hard to figure out my niche markets and I contacted people who were movers and shakers in those areas to get endorsements and reviews. That has paid off for me big time because my niche markets have grown and are bigger than I thought they’d be.

13. Do you sell through a website? If so, what’s the address? If not, why not?

I’m not self published, so I don’t sell through my website. For one, I don’t want to get involved with the tax stuff. And my books are available on Amazon and will be in Borders and Barnes and Noble, so there’s no need to buy through me. People can learn more about my book at www.judygregerson.com and I have links to an independent bookstore on my page, as well as Amazon and B&N.

14. Where can people order your books?

Amazon, B&N, chains stores, indy bookstores. Basically, anyone who sells books can get mine. Bad Girls Club will be in the big chains this spring, so that would also be a good place to look for it.

15. What format are your books – e-book, print, audio etc?

Right now, just print.

16. Will you write more books?

I have a few in the works that are in various stages of undone. Sometimes I work on a book for several years, picking it up for a while and then leaving it for a time, then going back. I’ve never just written something, revised it, and called it done. My stories seem to require more time and depth and the more I revise, the more I see how I need to revise more. It’s a vicious circle really, but I do love to revise.

17. What do you have in the works now?

I have a coming of age story about a girl whose mother deserts her in a grocery store parking lot and leaves her behind with a very eccentric extended family and never returns. I have another book done about a girl who lives in a trailer park and who’s trying to find her place in the world.

18. What does the future hold for you and your books?

Well, I am hoping that Bad Girls Club will reach the teen and adult audiences who really need to read it and that I build a strong readership for my next book. People who have read Bad Girls Club ask me when my next book is coming out, so I need to get that sold and out there so I can get to work on the next.

19. What was the most successful thing you did to promote your books?

I think that sending out ARCs really helped a lot. I was fortunate in that I had enough to send to librarians and reviewers (online) and that so many of them were very generous in reviewing it quickly and gave it great reviews. That created a momentum and buzz for my launch, which was quite successful. Bad Girls Club stayed in the top 10 on 5 Amazon Bestseller Lists (New Releases) for almost 3 months.

20. What was the least successful thing you did to promote your books?

Oh, I had a few media contacts that really didn’t work out, but th
at kind of stuff is so iffy anyway. You hope that the media bites. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. I did have one large national newsletter go out with a blurb about my book but they failed to mention my name, email, website address or anything else that would have made it possible for them to find the book and then when I discovered the error, they wouldn’t correct it. That was pretty sad, but stuff like that happens.

Synopsis for Bad Girls Club

Destiny has a secret. She’s been told not to tell anyone what happened to her, her little sister, and her mother at Crater Lake. Or that her mother is mentally ill and hits her little sister.

But the secret is killing her and every day she remembers the bad thing she did at Crater Lake. Her boyfriend, Joshua, and best friend, Chloe, don’t understand. When she pulls away from them, and refuses to leave the house, they don’t realize that she’s trying to fix the mistake she made. They only know that she’s slipping away.

But trying to hold her family together doesn’t work. Destiny feels a darkness in the house and when Mom gets out of the psychiatric hospital, it takes over. First it attacks her little sister, and then it comes for her.

Destiny has to choose whether to expose the lies and the darkness or tell the truth about what happened at Crater Lake.

Can the truth really set her free? Or will she remain what her mother has always called her–a bad girl?

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/TheSoulSalon 1 pm EST Call-in Number: (347) 215-8345 (Like a Salon for the Soul! Commentary and Tools to REALLY hear your spirit and intentionally feed it what it needs to thrive! Insist on having your most incredible life!)

A SPECIAL BONUS TO EACH PERSON WHO PURCHASES TRANSFORMING POWER TODAY – Hugh Ballou has compiled a list of great FREE bonus gifts for anyone who purchases Transforming Power today. To see a sample of the items that are being given away, visit http://www.transforming-power.com. Just buy a copy of Transforming Power, return to this page and click to submit your invoice number to receive the web page link to download all of these gifts for FREE.

Today we kick off Hugh Ballou’s virtual blog tour. He is touring cyber space and visiting a variety of blogs, websites, radio shows, newsletters etc between Monday July 28 and Friday August 29.

Nikki Leigh interviews Hugh Ballou on Book Promo 101 Talk Radio from 3-4 pm EST. For more information or to listen to the show, visit www.blogtalkradio.com/nikkileigh. Listeners can call in to ask questions by calling (347) 215-8201 or they can ask questions in the chat room.

A SPECIAL BONUS TO EACH PERSON WHO PURCHASES TRANSFORMING POWER TODAY – Hugh Ballou has compiled a list of great FREE bonus gifts for anyone who purchases Transforming Power today. To see a sample of the items that are being given away, visit http://www.transforming-power.com. Just buy a copy of Transforming Power, return to this page and click to submit your invoice number to receive the web page link to download all of this gifts for FREE.

Hugh Ballou – author of Transforming Power – is offering a fantastic selection of FREE bonus gifts to people who buy a copy of Transforming Power. We are sharing a partial list of the bonuses that are available, see the information posted below.

Hugh Ballou is touring cyber space from July 28th through the end of August and we are providing a wide variety of information about his book, his background, and the leadership services that he offers.

What Can a Conductor Teach You About Leadership?

How can you compare “being a conductor” with “being a corporate leader”? Visit this page for a comparison of these two occupations and you will see why Hugh Ballou’s 40 years as a choir conductor is invaluable in helping people learn how to become leaders.

Take a peek at some of the bonus gifts Hugh Ballou is offering to people who buy his new book –

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Hugh has carefully selected these trainings from his monthly training series, Leadership TeleSeminar. Building high performance teams means building the skill set of the leader. This training provides systems and strategies for leading teams and transforming organizations.

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I wrote this book when I was going through midlife crisis and raising two teenagers and a few odd house guests. I ended up getting a divorce by the end of the book, and while that is sad, I was in terrible denial. I managed my way through it by using humor as a distraction. It was cheap therapy–what more can I say?

In these days of sky rocketing gas and travel charges, is there a better and more eco-friendly way to promote our books, products and services? Each day we hear the price of gas has hit an “all time high”. We each battle the cost of driving and traveling every day. So, what is an author to do if they want to do a book tour to promote their book? The environmentally friendly answer is – a virtual book tour. There are many benefits to a virtual book tour over a brick and mortar store tour.

These include:1. Conserve gas2. Save money3. Stay home with your family4. No need to leave your day job5. Generate a buzz about your book6. Reach your target audience7. Create additional links to your site8. Give people the opportunity to communicate with you

If these benefits are of interest to you, then you need a FREE copy of the Insider’s Guide to Virtual Blog Tours by Nikki Leigh.

Author and Publicist Arielle Ford Interviews NY Times #1 Bestselling Author, Debbie Ford and How to Start Writing a Book eBook and Audio Recording by Arielle Ford.

If you don’t know where to begin or how to start writing your book, or if you’ve started but can’t seem to build the momentum and stick to a writing schedule, here’s a solution.

Arielle (www.EverythingYouShouldKnow.com) has personally written six books and her sister, Debbie (www.DebbieFord.com) has written five bestsellers. Together, they guide you through the ins and outs of writing books and getting published.

Arielle has publicized some of the most successful and famous authors in the world including NY Times bestsellers Deepak Chopra, Wayne Dyer, Neale Donald Walsch, Dean Ornish, Jon Gordon, Gary Zukav, Louise Hay, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen.

Two 45 minute audio recordings and over 45 pages of material.

Does Your Church Have a Prayer? In Mission to the Promised Land

You will receive a free excerpt and a discount coupon to purchase the book as soon as it is released along with a free one-hour teleseminar presented by the authors of this valuable strategic planning guide for church communities.

The National Networker

The National Networker is the world’s first “Consumer Reports of Networking” as well as the “Voice of the Networking Industry”. TNNW is a free, online publication that celebrates the life and times of social and business networkers as well as the many quality organizations and resources that support them. Subscribers from all over the globe read the publication fora straight, no-hype, no-nonsense, yet positive approach to the world of networking. Whether you’re looking for better networks to build your client base, establish a better peer network, build your knowledge base, find others with similar interests, discover your next job or learn about best practices and trends in the networking industry, TNNW is the publication ofchoice worldwide.

10 Top Publicity Leads by Randy Peyser

Randy Peyser provides 10 top publicity leads for getting the word out about your services on the Internet. These leads come from Randy’s “Internet Marketing and Publicity Directory” and are targeted for entrepreneurs, women, or Mind, Body, Spirit audiences.

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Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult. In fact, it can be fun! Here are ten ways to grow your business that won’t cost a dime–from the author of Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, Grassroots Marketing: Getting Noticed in a Noisy World, and five other books.Includes a free subscription to Shel’s Monthly Frugal Marketing Tips, published continuously since 1997.

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More Details Will be Provided Soon – Keep An Eye on Tour Posts About Hugh Ballou and Transforming Power